Customer Reviews

The Alpine Christmas (Emma Lord Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's Christmas time in Alpine. Snow on the ground, crisp chill in the air and for local Sheriff, Milo Dodge, the fish are biting.

Unfortunately, for Milo all he catches is a frozen leg.

For Emma Lord, 40ish publisher of the local paper, the Alpine Advocate, it's another story of a grusome crime in the tiny town. But it comes closer to home when Emma and her brother, Ben, who is a priest on vacation from his parish in Tuba City, Arizona go out to chop down their Christmas tree.

Emma finds her perfect tree and Ben finds another body.

Who are these two women and why did they come all the way to Alpine to be murdered?

Did it have anything to do with the local well to do Nyquist family, who are suddenly being hounded by pranksters, stared at by peeping toms and robbed.

Emma is determined to find out, and with the help of her employee, sixtish Vida Runkel and her brother, Ben, she uncovers a plot which could lead to her solving the crime, or to her own murder.

I enjoyed this book. I thought the storyline was a little hard to follow - too many Nyquist's. I lost track of who was who on occasion.

Emma and Vida, as always, are wonderful characters. Ben, is a great addition. Since his parish is in Arizona, I don't expect to see him too often in the future books.

More of the supporting characters have started to be included more in the story line. Emma has terrible luck with her employee's.

Ed, the advertisement salesman would still rather talk people out of taking an ad in the paper, or only use clip art instead of real pictures. And heaven forbid, "why would anyone want to have a color ad?"

Recent college graduate, Carla is the worst reporter in the world. She can't spell, can't remember to put film in the camera, or if she has film, forgets to take off the lens cap.

Emma claims she can't fire them because she's too soft-hearted.

I love the sheriff, Milo Dodge, he's very laid back, but knows his job and tries to do it as best he can, which isn't easy with Emma always telling him what he should be doing, or going, or thinking.

Emma's son Adam, who has the brains of a turnip, has come home for the Holiday's. He's now at college in Alaska after starting out at college in Hawaii. I find it hard to believe Emma raised this fool, hopefully he will grow out of this stage.

The one think I dislike, is the same as the first two books. Adam is the result of an affair, Emma had with a married man. Tom Cavanaugh. Emma still declares herself madly in love with him, and that he's a wonder person.

Every time he calls to talk to Emma, it just makes my blood boil. He always leaves Emma thinking about her lost love. Face it woman, you were not Romeo and Juliet. You're not even Joe & Judith (from Mary Daheim's Bed & Breakfast Series.)

If she wasn't wasting so much time on this jerk, she could get together with Milo, who is really the man of her dreams, she just doesn't see it yet. It doesn't help that Ben & Vida both think Tom is wonderful.

This storyline irritates me so much, I've been tempted to go to the last book I have in the series - Alpine Obituary, just to see where this relationship has gone. I'm dreading that she might actually end up married to this creep.

Next in the series - Alpine Decoy.

The Alpine Christmas is the third book in the Emma Lord Mystery series, but the first one that I have read. The characters were interesting and the storyline mildly thrilling. The story flowed well, not too slow, but not frantically fast paced either. The murder mystery left me guessing, which is always a huge bonus. Everything about The Alpine Christmas was just right, but the book felt tired. It wasn't dull, but it didn't leave me wanting more, which is the key to any series book. I'm going to give the Emma Lord Mystery series another try in the hopes that the indifference I feel is more book based than series based.

It's winter in Alpine and the beauty of the snow-covered landscape is lessened by the discovery of a woman's leg, and eventually of another woman's dead body. Emma Lord, intrepid owner of the Alpine Advocate newspaper, is on the alert, looking for clues which will lead to the murderer. She has lots of suspects which lead to a good number of red herrings, a requirement for a good mystery. In this book she is joined by her brother, Ben, a rather irreverant priest who is a welcome new character. Daheim does her usual good job and this will be pleasing to "cozy" fans.

So far, I've read three of the books in the Emma Lord mystery series and they've all been great! Ms. Daheim does a great job of keeping the reader in suspense throughout the whole book. Every character is continually developed throughout the whole series making each book in the series interesting! Most series get dull after a while, but not the Emma Lord mysteries!

I can't wait to visit Alpine again